The election commission said initial turnout was 59.4 percent, with results expected early Monday.
Voting in Lithuania’s presidential election, which came at a critical time for the strategically important Baltic state during Russia’s war in Ukraine, has ended.
Voting closed at 8pm (5pm GMT) on Sunday, and the first turnout was 59.4%, higher than the previous election in 2019, according to the Central Election Commission.
Results are expected early Monday morning.
There are eight candidates running, and it is unlikely that any one of them will receive the 50 percent of votes needed to win in the first round. If no one clears this hurdle, a runoff election will be held on May 26th.
Popular incumbent Gitanas Nauseda is a moderate conservative, and one of his main challengers is current prime minister and former finance minister Ingrida Simonte, who won 66% of the vote in the 2019 run-off. defeated him.
Another candidate is Ignace Wegele, a populist lawyer who made a name for himself by opposing restrictions and vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the top three candidates agree on defense, they have different views on social issues and relations between Lithuania and China, which have long been tense over Taiwan.
Aldona Mayauskine, 82, told Agence France-Presse that she voted for Nauda “because he is the best in every category.”
Irene, 53, a civil servant, told the agency that she voted for Simonite and hoped that future presidents would be less populist.
“I’m not voting for faces. I’m voting for people who can really help improve our safety and quality of life,” she said.
Concerns about Russia
Lithuania’s president oversees foreign and security policy and serves as commander-in-chief of the military.
This is particularly important as the country is on the eastern side of NATO and tensions between Russia and the West have escalated over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has now been going on for more than two years.
Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave also on the Baltic Sea, lies between Lithuania to the north and east and Poland to the south. Therefore, not only Lithuania but also neighboring Latvia and Estonia have great concerns about Russia’s recent expansion in northeastern Ukraine.
The Baltic states declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union and joined both the European Union and NATO.
Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million people, fears it could become Russia’s next target if it wins the war with Ukraine. It is Ukraine’s largest donor and a major defense spender with a military budget equal to 2.75 percent of its gross domestic product.
Also on the election ballot is a referendum on whether to amend the constitution to allow dual citizenship for the hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians living abroad, who are suffering from a declining population.
For the first time, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) declined Lithuania’s invitation to monitor elections.
The Lithuanian government wanted to remove observers from Russia and Belarus, saying the OSCE member states were a threat to the political and electoral process.
The group said Lithuania was in violation of OSCE rules and that the observers had signed a code of conduct pledging political neutrality and did not represent national governments.
